The Gamma’s Second Chance (Crescent Lake #3)

30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

NOLAN

Cassandra spins to leave, her words flying across the room like sharpened, poisoned darts, hitting their mark with precise accuracy. My heart. I rush forward, my hand encircling her wrist and tugging her back into the room, spinning her to face me with her body pressed to mine.

She glares up at me, fury flaring to life in her green eyes, setting the gold aflame. Tears rim her lids, and I growl, angry with myself for being the reason behind the pain overflowing from within her. The sound reverberates in my chest and around the room, and she flinches, but I keep her close, holding her gaze with steadfast sincerity. “You’re not a Band-Aid, Cassandra. You are my sun.”

She falters for the briefest moment, then gathers herself, doubling down on her anger. “You claim I’m your sun, yet you’re in here staring at the ring you bought for your ex-girlfriend after you ran off this afternoon because someone told you she found her second chance mate. Forgive me if I don’t believe you.”

She fights against my hold, but I wrap my arm around her waist, keeping her in place as my fist tightens around the ring box in my hand.

The one she assumes is the ring I bought for Rachel.

I kick myself for the terrible timing of Harrison’s mindlink. I didn’t realize or think about how she might interpret my sudden departure after speaking with Rachel’s parents.

I can’t blame her for her misinterpretation. She has no context for what she walked in on or for what happened today. She’s assuming the worst of me, and why shouldn’t she? I’ve given her no obvious reason to trust me. I’ve been too wrapped up in my head with my fears of rejection and my self-doubt to open myself up to her fully, and in doing so, I fed into her own fears of rejection.

But no more. It ends now. Tonight.

“I don’t care about Rachel finding her mate,” I say, my fingers splaying across the small of her back.

“You ran off, and you were tense and pissed.”

“I was tense and worried,” I correct her. “Harrison mindlinked me, and I had to go speak with him. Rachel and her second chance mate had nothing to do with my reaction. I promise. That was the furthest thing from my mind.”

It’s the complete truth. I’m happy for Rachel, and it doesn’t bother me that she found her mate. She deserves happiness.

But as soon as Harrison mindlinked me, all thoughts of Rachel disappeared, and the only thing that mattered was picking out the ring for Cassandra.

“Then why were you gone for so long, and why were you staring at her ring just now?” she insists, pushing against me with her palms on my chest, trying to put distance between us even though my hold on her is relentless.

“This ring?” I lift the box between us, and she frowns at it. I shake my head, and she frowns more. “It’s not the ring I bought for Rachel. I threw that ring in the dump weeks ago. The day after you arrived, actually. This…” I swallow and draw her in closer to my chest with my arm around her waist, snaking my hand to her hip. “This is the ring I bought for you.”

It takes a moment for my words to register in her brain. But when they do, her body relaxes, and her fighting and fidgeting stop.

Her eyes lift to mine, wide and innocent, and when she speaks, her voice is low and trembling. “For me?” I nod and pop the box open with my thumb, drawing her focus to it. She gasps, and the pain recedes from her eyes. The tears of frustration, bitterness, and sorrow morph into tears of astonishment and wonder. “It’s a daisy,” she whispers, tracing the petals crafted from diamonds. “When did you get this?” she asks, meeting my eyes again.

“Today. It’s why I left and why I was gone for so long. Harrison took me into town to pick it out. I couldn’t tell you because—”

“You wanted it to be a surprise,” she says, finishing my sentence for me.

My hand rubs her back, up and down her spine, now that I know she won’t bolt. But my tight hold on her remains. I can’t let her go. Not now.

“None of that excuses me leaving you alone for so long. I fucked up and I’m sorry.” She takes the box into her hands, examining the ring further, and I tuck her hair behind her ear. “I had this whole plan. I was going to ask you to be my chosen mate at the ball. But when I got home, I started thinking—overthinking, actually—and then you showed up and now…”

“I ruined everything?” she says, her eyes flicking up to mine, a sheepish blush creeping across her cheeks.

I shake my head and cup the back of her neck, my thumb stroking her jaw. “No, Daisy. You’ve ruined nothing.”

She straightens herself to her full height, confidence returning to her aura and certainty blazing in her eyes. “Then ask me.”

Just like that, all my doubts, questions, and insecurities return in full force.

What if she wants to be a true oracle more than she wants to be with me?

“Ask me,” she says. She wouldn’t say that to me if her answer will be no, if she isn’t willing to sacrifice that future to be my mate.

But what if it’s a trap?

I doubt Cassandra is that heartless, but then again, I never thought my fated mate would be someone who’d reject me right as I orgasmed. It took longer than I care to admit to not associate pain and rejection with the high that happens right before a release, and Kimberly showed little to no remorse for traumatizing me the way she did.

No. Cassandra isn’t Kimberly. Cassandra may push my buttons to get a rise out of me, but she is kind and empathetic. She is playful and vivacious. There isn’t a cruel bone in her body.

One question remains, though. A big question. The one that has my stomach twisting, my heart pounding, my palms sweating, and my tongue swelling like it did when I spoke to her mother on the phone last night.

“Why are you hesitating?” she asks, her brow furrowing and the ring shaking in her trembling hands.

I swallow and press my forehead to hers, squeezing my eyes shut as I rip open my wounds and place my heart in her hands. “You know I’ve been hurt before, Cassandra. My mate—the one who was supposed to love me and be my better half—left me broken and bruised, and Rachel… Well, I realize now that I was clinging to something I’d built up in my mind rather than something real. But—”

“I’m not like them,” she says, caressing my cheek. “I won’t hurt you or abandon you.”

“Maybe not intentionally.” I lean back and stare into her eyes. “But if you find your mate, or if you choose to be a true oracle, choose to wait to be marked by your fated mate over being marked by me as a chosen mate…” I shake my head and clench my fists. “I don’t know if I can survive that.”

Understanding lights up her features, her eyes darting between mine. A gentle smile curves her lips, and she gazes at the ring again, angling it so it catches the soft moonlight spilling into the room. “No bond of fate draws her soul to another.”

She utters the words slowly and precisely, enunciating each with clear diction, like she’s reciting a poem or a proverb. But if it’s something I’m supposed to recognize or something that’s supposed to enlighten me, it fails to do so.

“What?” I ask.

She backs away from me and strolls across the room to the window, staring at the ring the entire time. “Do you know why I was the acolyte sent to Crescent Lake?”

I follow and stand behind her, my arms crossed and my brow furrowing in confusion. “Wesley said you were the only one they could send.”

She nods. “That’s correct. But did you ever wonder why I was the only one?”

I shrug. “I hadn’t given it much thought.”

“They needed to send someone who wasn’t tied to the island, someone who could stay in Crescent Lake for as long as Haven and Wesley needed them around.”

Something clicks in my brain, something that hadn’t occurred to me until she began this line of questioning. “They weren’t worried you’d find your fated mate?”

She shakes her head as she turns to face me, the ring box clutched to her chest. “No. They were not.”

“Why not?”

She’s quiet for longer than I like, her fingers still trembling and her lip quivering. “Because I don’t have a fated mate.”

I shake my head, even though I hear, feel, and see the conviction behind her words.

That’s not possible. Selene creates a mate bond for all of us.

“How do you know that?” I ask.

She draws a deep breath in through her nose, preparing herself and gathering strength. “When an oracle is born, it is customary for the high oracle to do a reading. ‘No bond of fate draws her soul to another.’ That was my reading. My future. My fate.”

I stare at her, still confused, not fully understanding what she means or what she’s telling me. “A reading? Like a palm reading?”

“It is like that in a way, I suppose,” she says, tilting her head side to side. “There is a ceremony, and the high oracle sees the path of your soul. She doesn’t see everything, but she sees enough. She sees the important pieces.”

My arms drop to my sides, and my fingers twitch, itching to reach for her as comprehension dawns on me. “And that’s what she saw for you? No bond… drawing you to another? No mate bond?”

She nods and stares down at the ring in her hands, her lips pinched together and her eyes glassy. Then she laughs a little, a dry, sardonic sound reminiscent of the sarcastic, humorless laughs I give so often.

“That was a very long-winded and roundabout way to say you don’t need to worry about me finding my fated mate or wanting to wait for him so I can be a true oracle. There is no one out there meant for me. I will never be a true oracle. I’ve always known that.” She gazes up at me, hands me the ring box, and backs away, leaving a sizable gap between us. “So ask me, Nolan,” she says once more.

She stares at me with sheer conviction and complete vulnerability. She places her heart in my hands, the same way I’ve placed mine in hers. We’re two broken souls that fit together seamlessly, two fractured hearts that finally found the one who can heal them. We were both lost, wandering a forest of failed attempts, ruined dreams, and shattered promises, but we overcame the obstacles and the fear and made our way to each other.

We may not have a bond, but somehow, it still feels like fate.

The sparkling starlight frames her, setting her mauve dress aglow and highlighting the innate beauty and joy radiating from within her. Her confidence is unfaltering, a mirror image of the confidence in me, the confidence I felt last night and should have clung to all day instead of letting my fear get the best of me.

I drop to my knee, gazing up at the goddess before me, the female to whom my heart belongs. She’s owned it since the first smile she flashed my way, when I was too hurt to realize what I felt towards her wasn’t annoyance but the connection I’d been searching for all along. Her lower lip quivers, but she holds her smile, lifting her chin higher as she waits for me to speak.

“I love you, Cassandra,” I say, my voice thick with emotion as I open the box and extend it in front of me. “I don’t need a mate bond to know you’re my true second chance mate and my first real chance at happiness. So be mine, Daisy. Fill my life with your smiles, my home with your flowers, and my heart with your sunshine. Play my piano and eat my potato chips and rearrange my furniture. Put your name on my soul like you put your name on my front door.”

Her smile grows as I speak, and by the end, she’s bouncing with excitement, her hands clasped beneath her chin. The last word leaves my mouth, and she darts forward with a laughing sob, throwing herself into my arms. I catch her as our lips meet, and she knocks me backwards, the ring box tumbling out of my hand as I brace myself against the floor to cushion my fall, both of us smiling as we kiss.

My arm snakes around her waist as I pull her into my lap so her hips line up with mine and her thighs straddle me, her skirt lifting to reveal those endless legs I adore so much. She cups my face and squeezes herself closer to me, rocking her hips as I slide my palms up the tops of her thighs, raising her skirt higher.

“Say it again,” she whispers, her lips brushing mine.

My mouth twitches, angling into a half smile as my hands cup her butt. “Say what again?” I tease, pinching her ass cheek.

She yelps and then nips at my lower lip. “You know what, dickhead!”

I laugh, tipping my chin to the ceiling, the sound bouncing off the furniture. It’s pure and bright, like the laughter my friends brought out of me before my life went to shit. “I love you, Cassandra,” I say again, stroking her sides beneath her dress as she kisses my jaw and my neck. “I love your smiles and how you see the best in everything and everyone—in me.”

Her smile grows impossibly bigger, and I groan as her lips pass over my marking spot, and she teases it with the softest kisses and her warm breath. My fingers dig into her skin as I fight the urge to overtake her and claim her right now. My jaw tenses as she continues torturing me with her lips and tongue on my neck, but I hold back and slip into the satisfaction I feel from her giving attention to that sensitive place.

“I love you too, Nolan,” she says, lifting her gaze to mine, her eyes flecked with gold.

“So… is that a yes?” I ask, teasing the underside of her breast with my thumb.

She nods, her nose brushing mine. “It’s a yes. I want to be yours, and I want you to be mine. There is no one else I can imagine spending my life with.”

My throat tightens at her verbal confirmation, my heart swelling with happiness. Her reaction told me everything I needed to know, but hearing her accept me? Having her say out loud that she loves me and wants me?

It’s unparalleled.

I dive forward and kiss her once more, hands grappling with the fabric of her dress. The garment fights back, unwilling to leave her body, tangling around my limbs and her torso, and I growl in frustration. Cassandra tears her mouth from mine, and as I wrestle with her clothing, her eyes dart around the room, scanning the floor. “Where’s the ring?” she asks.

“I don’t know. We’ll find it later,” I grit out, finally getting my hands free from the confines of her infuriating dress.

“I want to wear it.” She lunges away from me, reaching for the small black box that is almost underneath my dresser.

I snarl and yank her back, my hand wrapping around her throat and my face buried in her neck. “You don’t need it,” I remind her. “I’m going to mark you. Right here”—I blow on her marking spot—“and then everyone will know who you belong to.”

I slide the straps of her dress down her arms until the bodice is around her waist, leaving her bare breasts on display for my eyes to feast on, much like earlier during our “piano lesson.” Her nipples tighten until they’re as hard as the diamonds in the ring I bought for her. I cup both of her breasts in my hands, groaning at their softness as I tease her neck with my mouth, nipping at it and kissing it.

I give her neck every bit of attention it deserves. It’s no longer just a brief drag of my teeth or a small, gentle kiss. I claim each inch of it in every way I can, except with my fangs piercing her flesh.

Cassandra gasps and writhes in my lap, her body reacting beautifully to my kisses and my touch like it always does. I wrap myself around her, embracing her and stroking the smooth skin of her arched back, but she pushes against me and yanks my face from her neck, leaning away and staring into my eyes, hers filled with earnestness.

“Not tonight,” she says, panting, her shoulders heaving and her heart racing.

“Not tonight?” I growl, and my grip on her tightens. “What do you mean, not tonight?”

She licks her lips as she catches her breath, one hand caressing my cheek and the other sliding down to my chest and resting just above my heart. “Oracles have a special, sacred bonding ceremony where we mark our mate in the temple. It’s a private, intimate ritual. Every true oracle on the island has completed their bond with their mate in this ceremony. And even though you’re not my fated mate, I want to be marked by you like that. I never thought I’d find anyone who’d want to tie themselves to me as a chosen mate since I can’t have children. But it’s always been my secret dream to be marked in the temple.”

“We’d have to travel there?”

“Yes.”

I growl again and shake my head. “I don’t know if I can wait that long. I want to claim you in every way. I want everyone to know you’re mine.”

“We can leave right after the ball. As soon as we can get on a flight out, or Wesley can book us a private jet, we’ll go, and your mark will be on my neck within a day of us arriving on the island.”

She stares at me, her eyes filled with hope as she explains her plan.

“Cassandra…” I groan, pressing my forehead to hers.

She strokes my cheeks with her thumb, and I glide my hands up her back and down again, closing my eyes so they don’t linger on her pretty nipples that are testing my restraint. But even with my eyes closed, I can see the hope in hers, and feel how fervently she desires this. And although it means a delay in her receiving my mark, her wish to do this special ceremony becomes my wish as well. I want nothing more than for our marking to be a treasured memory for us both, to give her this dream since so many of hers have already been stolen from her.

“Okay,” I concede, nodding so our noses brush, and I feel her smile as she tilts our faces closer. “But you’re wearing my clothes every second that you’re not naked—except at the ball—and that ring”—I gesture towards the dresser the ring is still under—“stays on your finger at all times. Do you understand?”

She answers me with a kiss, and I clutch at her, drawing her half-naked body closer to mine. I hold myself back from kissing her the way I want, the way I usually do, keeping this kiss short and sweet, yet filled with every ounce of love I have for her.

When she pulls away, her eyes twinkle, and a soft blush spreads across her face. She hesitates, like she wants to ask me something, but she pinches her lips together and leans against me, resting her head on my shoulder. I trace her hairline and comb through her curls, encircling her body with my other arm to keep her warm and safe. “What is it?” I ask.

“I was just thinking…” Her eyelids flutter as my fingertips trail down her spine, a small sigh escaping her lips. “My lycan and your wolf haven’t met yet.”

She lifts her head so her chin rests on my chest, and her eyes stare up at me, green and gold caged behind long, dark lashes. “That’s true, they haven’t met yet,” I say. “Do you want them to?”

The twinkle in her eyes shines brighter, and she nods, getting to her feet. Her dress falls to the floor, and she steps out of it, shimmying out of her underwear as she walks out of my room.

“Now?” I ask, jumping to my feet and following her as she rushes down the hall and towards the back door.

She flings the door open instead of answering, and I growl playfully as I chase after her, ripping my shirt over my head and yanking my pants off as she runs through my backyard towards the forest, her ivory skin bathed in moonlight. She laughs—that bright, beautiful, piano music laugh—and disappears into the tree line. I shift mid-stride once I remove all my clothes. My red wolf shakes out his fur and lets out a howl before he takes off at a sprint to hunt down our mate.